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2009 Election Candidate Forum:
The Questions

The Club is undertaking work to bring more youth and diverse cultures into our membership and leadership. What specific strategies would you advocate to accomplish this?

Boldman, Lane

We have started a down a positive track, but we have a long way to go, and we may experience some bumps as we try to catch up. The adoption of a Diversity plan has already improved our outreach to communities of color. And the modernization of our electronic communications to attract younger audiences is taking shape. We need all this and more of it. We must build capacity and make sure these important improvements do not divert from our existing activists and supporters—so that our outreach is not just a shift, but is an expansion; retaining what we have as we reach out to others. Programs such as Inner City Outings, Environmental Justice, and the Sierra Student Coalition can take the lead in this area. We also need to restore the functions of the Partnerships program’s faith outreach, and increase our presence in China and India.

Gibson, Laurence

Our El Paso Regional Group has had a fine Inner City Outings component for years. They are planting seeds which will hopefully sprout into new generations of environmentalists some day. Our Albuquerque staffer founded an innovative “No Child Left Inside” program which will hopefully bear fruit over the years. There is a definite challenge involved in crossing over to non-traditional cultures. In my university work, our approach has been open enrollment. We have a seemingly endless supply of graduates who are the first in their families to graduate from college. There is a socioeconomic barrier to outings for many who associate being on foot, sleeping outdoors, and eating basic food with poverty. That will take generations (and prosperity) to change.

Mann, Robin

The development of online organizing and social networking are critical to bringing more youth and diverse cultures into our membership and leadership.  Our new Justice and Communities Program, which will oversee the expansion of our relationship building with diverse communities, has an important role to play in guiding our activist leaders in building potential new connections to diverse communities and youth, and also attracting new members and leaders.  Another important strategy being pursued is to strengthen the coordination among the various programs that relate to youth, including the Building Bridges to the Outdoors Program and the Sierra Student Coalition, and to build their leader engagement opportunities.

Morris, Frank

My friend and fellow Long Island Sierran Shawn Kilmurray is the new executive Director of Rock The Earth.  http://www.rocktheearth.org/joomla/   My relationship with Shawn is personal.  If Sierra Club is truly interested in reaching out to young people, let’s partner with a group like Rock The Earth and have a series of concerts.  The Sierra Club Student Coalition could co sponsor concerts and energize young people around the US.  Shawn has worked professionally with Alicia Keys, Phish, and the Dave Mathews Band.  He knows these people personally.   He has relationships throughout the music industry.  My strategy to bring in young people and people of diverse culture is simple:  Meet them where they are, crank up the volume, and dance for the Earth.  My relationship with Shawn Kilmurray will make this happen.

Reyes, Rafael

To continue to be successful the Sierra Club must draw in younger supporters and “look” more like the United States overall.  To draw in younger supporters I have pushed for accelerating the Club’s technology initiatives including deployment of Convio online outreach system and the development of the online community ClimateCrossroads.org.  To promote diversity, I have strongly supported our Diversity Initiative which is putting in place a number of actions to diversify the staff, bring training to chapters, and establish a more comprehensive strategy.  It is also vital that we “introduce” the Sierra Club more broadly.  For example, GreenWorks advertising with the Sierra Club logo in Ebony magazine and our Spanish language media work are key to present the Sierra Club brand to new audiences.

Scott, David

If we want to get more young people engaged, we need to talk to more young people.   There are lots of things we can do – from exploring the potential of social networking sites as organizing tools to seeking funding for Youth Climate Action work.  As Vice-Chair of the Conservation Governance Committee, I made it a point to choose some young activists when I filled leadership positions in the Club.  

Increasing diversity requires us to look beyond our traditional priorities.  Environmental Justice principles should be incorporated broadly into our programs, and we need more EJ staff.  We need to be more creative in finding common ground with other people’s biggest concerns – for example, working to improve conditions in our urban areas, supporting efforts to train people and get them jobs in the new energy economy, and expanding outreach efforts like Inner City Outings.

Warshaw, Chris

It is crucial for the Sierra Club to reach out to a diverse set of communities to build new members and leadership for our organization. Students and youth are critical to the future of the Sierra Club. We should focus our initial strategies on reaching out to students by 1) helping youth find jobs in the environmental movement, 2) publicizing our outings program, and 3) creating a “young environmental leader” fellowship at major universities. It is also critical to reach out to other diverse cultures and communities.  I would guide our outreach to using focused metrics and analytical research to guide our campaigns. I would support this approach by hiring more staff at the national level and reaching out to other organizations in these communities to plan campaigns that matter to people in each diverse culture.

Wheeler, Phil

Increasing our outreach to new constituencies – youth and diverse cultures – is vital to the future of our Sierra Club. Unless our membership transitions over time to become more representative of our changing national demographics the Club will be increasingly marginalized.  Specifically we should:

•Judiciously increase the Club’s financial support to the program proposed by our Diversity Council; I believe our financial commitment to this work has been marginal.
•Use our best-of-class outings program to support our outreach, by designing outings and activities – and reshaping how we define outings – to attract more diverse constituencies, for example those who consider family events as “outings”. In this pursuit the success of our Puerto Rico Chapter’s outings program can provide guidance.
•Develop goals and metrics to tell us if our diversity initiatives are working and will ultimately succeed or if we need to define and pursue new approaches.